Most horror flicks featuring zombies use the same formula using a type of disease that turns them into hideous monsters who walk around without direction looking for humans to infect by biting them. Well the movie Deadsight is no different other than the storyline that involves a blind man and a pregnant woman trying to stay alive until they can get saved from the doom that looms around them.
Ben Nelson (Adam Seybold), a blind man, awakens inside an emergency medical vehicle stopped on a backwoods road. He’s handcuffed by one arm to the bar of the gurney and discovers that no one is inside the van. He’s able to pull the bar from the side of the stretcher and as he’s about to leave through the back door a Medical Tech, now a zombie, attacks him.
At that same time Mara Madigan (Liv Collins), a Canadian Police officer leaves for work from her home. She’s pregnant and this is her last day before taking leave to have her child. Heading for the police station she gets an odd call on her two-way radio, but can’t make it out.
The two will come together as the day starts to movie into night for the most horrific time of their lives. Director Jesse Thomas Cook, not a stranger to horror flicks, helming his last six features of the genre, takes Deadsight seriously with settings and lighting doing his bidding. He takes his audience into a cold north as he spins the tale of two very different people with medical needs that make their existence dependent on others. It’s a very cool idea and he makes his scenes frightening, urgently uncontrollable and intimidating as he adds one perilous situation after another.
You don’t have to be a horror fan to watch the film, just someone who wants to experience a chilling and thrilling attempt to escape danger and survive. This zombie flick does have all the trappings to do just that. From the get go we find Ben in trouble facing an uncertain future as he wanders aimlessly looking for help. It’s a good role for Adam Seybold who has been in several spine tingling films during his eleven year career and here he does an excellent job making the audiences believe he’s blind. It’s the most important role in the film as his being sightless makes the film work.
Then there’s a pregnant woman that days away from delivery, is on the road heading for a danger she could not have imagined. The right choice for the cop, Liv Collins, finds her role extremely in danger and without the mobility of her normal self. She nails the character with a performance that should be envied by an A-lister. Her career has been just 5 years in the making and being under the wing of Director Jesse Thomas Cook hasn’t been a bad thing for her past three films.
Everything connects here to make Deadsight a very good movie that his now been released on DVD, Digital HD and VOD. If you get an opportunity to see the film from one of the media, go for it. Set yourself up with come popcorn and a libation one night alone, with your honey or friends and give yourself an hour and a half escape from the normal. The film is not rated by the MPAA, but contains violence, language and gore.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A very good Zombie movie for a change. (4 out of 5 Stars)
Specifications and additional video information:
Cast: Liv Collins, Adam Seybold, Ry Barrett, Jessica Vano,
Director: Jesse Thomas Cook
MPAA Rating: Not Rated, contains violence, language
Genre: Horror
Running Time: 1 hr. 29 min.
Video Release Date: July 2, 2019
Language: English
Reviewed Format: DVD
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: 1080p Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Number of Discs: 1 Disc
Distributed by: RLJE Films
Released on: DVD, VOD, Digital HD
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
